Technology's Impact on Thinking & Communication: Perspectives from Agger, Bauerlein, Carr,, Exams of Creative writing

Download Technology's Impact on Thinking & Communication: Perspectives from Agger, Bauerlein, Carr, and more Exams Creative writing in PDF only on Docsity! THE PERSUASIVE ESSAY: PREWRITING Name: Dani Bommarito Essay question: How have computers, the Internet, or other technology created a problem with the way people think and/or communicate in daily interpersonal relationships, the academic world, or the professional world? Questions for Discussion: Prewriting Thoughts 1. How do you, as a contemporary college student, use technology and the Internet in your scholarly career? List ALL ways you utilize technology. Computer for research, phone for research, ipod for research, also study with the previous devices, do majority of research from internet 2. How do you, as a member of American society, use technology and the Internet to communicate with other members of society? All the time, I live 3 hours away from home and technology is the most practical way to communicate with the people far away 3. List two issues or problems you encounter in your daily utilization of technology or the Internet. Be as specific as possible. Wireless signal often fails when doing research on the internet. This makes it difficult to efficiently gather research. DROPPED CALLS ON MY IPHONE!!! Impossible to have a normal conversation when phone calls are dropped. the persuasive essay: all documents 1 Questions for Discussion: Agger 4. What does Agger mean when he writes, “Humans are informavores” and how does this relate to Nielson’s description of the “‘selfish, lazy, and ruthless’” online reader? Aggar’s statement explains that humans want to discover as much information about many different things as possible. Instead of focusing on one article and learning a lot about one topic, we lazily scan through many articles and pick up a general idea of the topic. To discover a mass amount of information, humans will quickly scan an article instead of reading through the entire thing. This need to acquire mass amounts of information and failure to devote full attentiveness to an entire article is certainly lazy and selfish. 5. According to Agger’s research, what is the future for literacy? According to his research, humans will continue to read on the computer more and more. The process by which we read on paper will never be replaced by on-screen reading though. Ultimately, the way we acquire information will be doomed by the easy accessibility of the internet. 6. How does the format of Agger’s article support his claims? Agger’s article is formatted in the way that humans prefer. He includes bolded information, short paragraphs, and bulleted lists. The way he formats the article supports the claim that humans are lazy readers. It supports that they prefer this format in order to gain information faster and easier. the persuasive essay: all documents 2 Questions for Discussion: Saunders 14. According to Saunders’s essay, how has communication technology (e.g. television and Internet media) changed our “mental experience”? Communication technology has fed humans tiny bits of lots of information. We have been fed biased information that is reported in order to gain a profit. Instead of being fully knowledgeable about certain topics nowadays, we only know the general overview of them. 15. According to Saunders’s essay, when our news media presents frivolous, superficial, or inconsequential (i.e. “dopey”) news stories and presents them as meaningful and/or culturally important, what is the effect on our society? According to Saunders, we become dumber. The fact that this kind of information is so often presented makes each human more accepting of worthless information. We no longer care if we are being properly informed. 16. According to Saunders’s essay, what is the most effective way to combat the effects of the braindead megaphone on our culture? The most effective way to combat the effects of the braindead megaphone on our culture is to simply be aware of the megaphonic tendency. In doing so, we can remind ourselves that the things that represent our world are not truly our world. the persuasive essay: all documents 5 17. Based on your own experiences and what we have read so far, what would you define as the overall issue with the way computer technology affects students? The overall issue concerning computer technology affecting students is the way information is processed. Reading in the F pattern so negatively affects how we process information. Continuing to acquire information in this manner will only influence how much we know about a certain topic. The world will begin to only know half the truth about important reported information. 18. Identify two authors whose claims you will evaluate and incorporate into your persuasive essay. Find two quotes from each that you will be working with in your essay, and identify how the quoted material will function in your essay: a. Author #1: b. Quoted material (page number/line numbers): c. Function in your persuasive essay: a. Bauerlein b 100-105, 167-168 c. the 1st quote will be used to demonstrate the way which humans process information when reading online, the 2nd quote will give the statistical information concerning how online reading has affected the proficiency of reading a. Author#2: b. Quoted material (page number/line numbers): c. Function in your persuasive essay: a. Carr b. 331-333, 519-520 c. the 1st quote will function by demonstrating that technology has been affecting the way we process information for centuries and how it will continue to affect us, the 2nd quote will support that the human mind is becoming more wired like a computer than anything else the persuasive essay: all documents 6 Which ONE category of technology or innovation will you be focusing on in your essay? Check one and explain your answer briefly.  Search Engines/Meta-Sites (Google, Bing, Digg, Reddit, etc.)  Smartphones/Cellphones (iPhones, Android phones, etc.)  Digital Readers/Netbooks (Kindles, iPads, etc.)  Social Networking Sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, eHarmony, etc.)  Online News Sites (Online Magazines, Newspapers, Wikipedia, Blogs, etc.) Using google and other search engines further supports that acquiring information is becoming easier and lazier. Which ONE category of authors or ideas will you be focusing on in your essay? Check one and explain your answer briefly.  Carr and the Pancake/Google Effect: Online Reading, Writing, and the Flattened, Robotic Human Brain  Kirn, Richtel, and the Multitasking Crash: Smartphones, Internet, “infinite connectivity,” and the Distracted Human Brain  Saunders and the Braindead Megaphone: Information Dissemination, Rhetoric, Politics, and the Twenty-Four-Hour News Cycle  Birkerts and Digital Shift: Language Erosion, Flattening Historical Perspectives, and the Waning of the Private Self Carr’s article effectively relays information supporting how reading and writing online have become affected and directly influenced by technology. Using your answers to all sections of #18, write the first draft of your thesis statement: By the persuasive essay: all documents 7